As I’ve said before, to anyone who’ll listen, I love Flagstaff and I’m excited about its blossoming food scene. Roll your eyes if you must, but I’m telling you, for a mountain town overrun with college kids and a population hovering just under 80,000, Flagstaff rocks, culinarily speaking. And with the opening of Teatro — pronounced tay-AH-tro — a brand-new Italian restaurant in the heart of downtown, it just got a little better.

Teatro resides in the historic building most recently occupied by Criollo Latin Kitchen, which closed for pandemic-related reasons in 2021. The space sat vacant until local restaurateur Kevin Heinonen, the founder of THAT Place Projects Hospitality Group, snapped it up last spring. THAT Place Projects is the umbrella company for Tinderbox, Annex, Tourist Home and now, Teatro.